%0 Journal Article %A Agah,, Sh. %A Shirali, A. %A Sedigh, N. %A Fereshtehnejad, S.M. %A Saffarian,, H. %A Vaziri,, A.H. %T A Comparative Study of the Effects of Herbal Therapy with Carmint %J Razi Journal of Medical Sciences %V 15 %N 0 %U http://rjms.iums.ac.ir/article-1-1001-en.html %R %D 2008 %K Key Words: 1) Flatulence 2) Dimethicone 3) Carmint, %X Background & Aim: stomach or intestine, leading to distension of the organs. Approximately 20% of people aged 65-93 have experiencedabdominal distension, often due to gaseous build-up. A wide range of approaches, including chemical drugs and dietarymodifications, are utilized to treat flatulence. One of the most common therapies for flatulence is dimethicone. On the otherhand, the use of alternative therapies, particularly herbal remedies, is also becoming increasingly common. The aim of thisstudy was to compare the effects of carmint as herbal therapy versus those of dimethicone on flatulence.Flatulence is a condition which is defined as the presence of excessive amounts of air or gas in thePatients and Method: flatulence. After determining appropriate inclusion and exclusion criteria, the patients without any organic disorders wereselected and randomly divided into two groups: 42 patients under herbal therapy with carmint in group A and 40 patientsreceiving dimethicone in group B. Both groups received the treatment for two weeks. Then the patients were followed upwith phone calls one and three weeks after the beginning of the treatment and asked about their gastrointestinalsymptoms. The symptoms were recorded in the checklists provided and the data were analyzed by SPSS version 13 usingChi-square, paired t-test, independent t-test, Mann-Whitney U test, and repeated measures.This double-blind, randomized, controlled, clinical trial was conducted on 82 patients withResults: 1.08) and 1.15(SD=1.00) respectively, suggesting that the difference between the two groups was statistically significant(P=0.019). In addition, the mean changes of distension in group A(1.21, SD=0.97) were significantly higher than group B(0.73, SD=1.06)(P=0.01). However, there were not any significant differences in the relapse of most of their symptomsafter stopping the therapy in the third week of follow-up.At the end of the first week of follow-up, the mean changes of flatulence in groups A and B were 1.73(SD=Conclusion: gastrointestinal diseases. On the other hand, dimethicone is also useful in reducing froth in the lumen of thegastrointestinal tract. Nevertheless, in some studies dimethicone does not exhibit any beneficial effects on the symptomsof intestinal gas. In addition, our results show that the effect of carmint is significantly higher than that of dimethicone onrelieving flatulence symptoms, especially in a short period.Carminatives are among the oldest known remedies and were reportedly used by Hippocrates for %> http://rjms.iums.ac.ir/article-1-1001-en.pdf %P 27-38 %& 27 %! %9 Research %L A-10-1-824 %+ %G eng %@ 2228-7043 %[ 2008